A NORTH Wales Tory AM called yesterday for the legal use of cannabis as pain relief.

A NORTH Wales Tory AM called yesterday for the legal use of cannabis as pain relief.

Mark Isherwood wants the drug to be available on prescription for sufferers of multiple sclerosis, cancer or HIV Aids.

He urged Health Minister Jane Hutt to back demands for cannabis and its derivatives to be legalised in this way.

Conservative Party policy is generally opposed to the use of cannabis in this way until evidence proves that the benefits outweigh potential side effects.

But Mr Isherwood said: "It is criminal to criminalise these people in pain, as we do now, when they obtain or import their cannabis illegally.

"We must listen to the experts - the patients themselves."

The AM said that a visit to the MS Centre in Saltney, on Deeside and discussions with MS sufferers had persuaded him that cannabis could have medicinal benefits.

"I have become convinced that cannabis can be used as a beneficial therapy to combat pain and spasms and that it should be made available under prescription like any other medical drug," he said.

"We must now bite the bullet and seek early de-classification that legalises prescribed cannabis medication in Wales and the UK," he said.

Harri Owen-Jones, director of the Multiple Sclerosis Therapy Support Centre in Saltney said yesterday: "We totally support the relief of pain for people with incurable diseases.

"Cannabis is known to provide that relief in many cases. We would support the medicinal use and control of this drug."

A spokeswoman for the Assembly government declined to comment on the issue yesterday. "Can-nabis is an illegal drug and that is not a devolved matter," she said.

A spokesman at Conservative Central Office said: "We are opposed to it, because of side effects, such as the higher carcinogenic nature of cannabis compared to tobacco. But we would be open to persuasion if the evidence proved its benefits."